City of Norman ADA Self-Assessment and Transition Plan Update

An Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) Transition Plan was developed for the City of Norman in 1992. The City Council adopted the Transition Plan on May 11, 1993. At the time, the Council adopted the following policy statement: "The City of Norman embraces the goals and objectives established in the Americans with Disabilities Act, as adopted by the United States Congress through Public Law Number 100-336. It shall be the policy of the City of Norman to make every reasonable effort to ensure that all people have an equal opportunity to participate in and experience all public programs and facilities."

We are seeking your input and we will incorporate your comments in the final transition plan update.

QUESTIONNAIRE

You can still provide feedback by completing our questionnaire. It is only 15 questions and you do not have to give your name, unless you choose to.

MAP

If you would like, you can give us specific feedback on a map about the locations where you have experienced issues related to accessibility, safety, connectivity, or suggestions for accessibility improvements that are needed in Norman.

The City's 1993 Transition Plan focused on accessibility at City-owned facilities and provided a schedule for compliance with sidewalk accessibility. Like hundreds of cities and jurisdictions in the United States, the City of Norman worked to complete the Transition Plan as specified in January 1995. After 25 years, so much more has been learned about accessibility of public spaces so the City of Norman is taking the proactive approach of conducting a self-evaluation and an update of the 1993 Transition Plan to address remaining public accessibility needs in Norman, and to set the goals for those policy and infrastructure improvements in coming years.

This project will assess current compliance with the ADA in Norman, create priority guidelines for improvements with cost estimates and incorporate the 2011 Proposed Accessibility Guidelines for Pedestrian Facilities in the Public Right of Way for pedestrian routes in Norman.

Eleven Norman residents were appointed by the City Council to serve on the ADA Citizen Steering Committee. The citizen committee met on August 17 (photo below) for their organizational meeting where they received a brief overview of the project.

PUBLIC MEETINGS

The citizen committee had their first project meeting on October 26, 2017. The second project meeting occurred on February 27, 2018. This meeting presented to the ADA Staff Liaison Committee and Citizen Steering Committee the ADA compliance results of the City of Norman building complex (buildings A, B & C), Andrews Park, Lions Park, Westwood Park, eight miles of sidewalk and twenty roadway intersections. This project also reviewed findings of services and programs included in all City of Norman departments such as City policies, ordinances, Human Resources hiring and training, to website design.

The next public meeting was an Open House on May 9 at the Norman Public Library Central. There was a presentation of the final self-evaluation findings.

The ADA Coordinator for the City of Norman is Shawn O'Leary, Public Works Director.